Just got my "new" EOS 3

<p>I just bought an EOS 3 to compliment my 5D. I am in the middle of the first roll of film to test drive it.<br>

Observations:<br>

1. I like the eye control. I calibrated it (and recalibrated 2 more times) and then went out to play. It works pretty well.<br>

2. I like the ability to average multiple spot meter readings.<br>

3. I think I will like the DEP setting, but I haven't used it yet.<br>

4. I was prepared for loud shutter trips. However, it is louder than I expected. Between the shutter and the film advance, there is no doubt that the picture has been taken. <br>

5. The last film SLR I owned was a Pentax K1000. My how things have changed!</p>

<blockquote>I think I will like the DEP setting, but I haven't used it yet.</blockquote>

<p>One of the best features the Canon EOS line ever had. Try it and learn to use it well. Dropping DEP was one of the worst decisions Canon ever made.</p>

<blockquote>The last film SLR I owned was a Pentax K1000.</blockquote>

<p>One of the all time classics. The EOS 3's DEP mode will let you control depth of field just as you were able to do with the K1000. Something you can't do even with the current gigabuck EOS-1<em>x</em> series.</p>

<p>I still shoot film (with FD and EOS) and use my EOS 3 (I also have a pair of 1Vs and a 1NRS). Like you I find the eye control a great feature and think that it would have been a great addition to a sports body like the 1D series or 7D. I am not sure why Canon abandoned the system. Multi-spot capability was a great loss on the XD bodies and here it looks like canon just wants to differentiate the 1 series bodies. I personally really miss multi-spot and the viewfinder blind on my 7D and 5DII. I also prefer the handling of the 3 (or the 1 series bodies) to the new XD bodies where I dislike the top plate dial. You should find that the AF on the EOS3 is much better than the 5D as the EOS 3 has essentially the old 1 series AF system.</p>

<p>I still have a 3 and a 1Vbut seldom shoot film anymore. I recently got a 5DMKII. Even with all that it has to offer, I miss lots of the useful features of the 3 and 1V, particularly the multi-spot metering. It is a great tool. These bodies were... and are... great bodies.</p>

<p>I bought an EOS 3 (used, but in Perfect shape) last year to compliment my older, too-basic 10S, as well as my DSLRs. The 3's a great camera with a loud shutter! The 16-35 really shines on that 35mm format.</p>

<p>I miss eye control. In my opinion, it was one of the neatest features ever found on an AF SLR. </p>

<p>Eye control was an interesting feature but it did not work very well for a lot of people. It struggled to work with people wearing eyeglasses, for example. Maybe a next generation eye control feature will make it more useful for more people,</p>

<p>What this country needs is a good EOS-3D ...</p>

<p>Jeff Conrad wrote:</p>

<p>"The EOS 3's DEP mode will let you control depth of field just as you were able to do with the K1000. Something you can't do even with the current gigabuck EOS-1<em>x</em> series."<br /> Lets see<br /> I have a 1VHS a EOS3 and severl Canan digital bodies.<br /> I can control depth of field on all of them.<br /> Am I missing something? Jeff do you mean that there is no DEP mode on the digital bodies but there was on a K1000? ? ?</p>

<p>It sounds like you are saying you cant control depth of field without a DEP mode...</p>

<p>I'd recommend looking into getting the PB-E2. The extra hand hold volume improves overall camera handling significantly. Of course, the replicated controls makes portrait oriented shooting very comfortable as well. It's about $100 on the used market.</p>

<p>The PB-E2 also replaces the 2CR5 batteries with 8 standard AA's. Use Energizer disposable lithiums and there won't be appreciable weight increase. The significant increase in energy capacity means it's probably the last set of batteries you'll buy for the next 10 years or the next few hundreds rolls of film, whichever comes first.</p>

<p>This camera (and a Contax G1) are the cameras I use most. The EOS-3 is arguably the finest 135 format camera body ever produced. It's beautifully designed and engineered.</p>

<p>On the used EOS 3 I have, it does not have the covers for the remote release and the studio flash connections. What do you use for replacement covers?</p>

<p>Congratulations Charles!<br /> <br /> I am another EOS 3 Fan...and like many others, Eye Control Focus is Very useful to me. I use multiple spot metering, mainly to read the dynamic range of the scene. I also like the customisation offered by this camera…I have it set-up exactly the way I like it! Best film camera I have owned.<br /> <br /> Parts and accessories still seem to be easy to get (I just bought a new +1 diopter and a grid screen).<br /> <br /> I bought a NikonV ED 35mm film scanner a year or two ago to scan the film from my EOS 3. Honestly, if I had purchased that scanner before I bought a digital body I don't think I would have a digital body today.<br /> <br /> Three things I would recommend for the EOS 3:<br /> <br /> - watch out for the Remote Control Socket Cover (little black rubber plug). If your camera still has one, consider yourself fortunate. They are very easy to lose. If you're thinking of ordering a spare...get a bag full of the little buggers. I replaced mine with some electrical tape a long time ago.<br /> <br /> - get one of the battery grips. There are three available for the EOS 3 (PB-E2, PB-E1 and the BP-E1). Any of these grips will pay for themselves quickly because the EOS 3, 2CR5 lithium battery is expensive. The basic (cheap) BP-E1 grip does not have the Power Booster (to increase frame rate), but, it allows you to use four, "AA" rechargeable batteries alone, or with, the 2CR5 (there is a switch to select which battery you want to use). Unless you plan on doing a lot of shooting, you can easily use the "AA"s alone (hundreds of shots).<br /> <br /> - the EOS 3 shutter button has a "hair trigger". It releases the shutter too easily (in my opinion). If you are switching back-and-forth from a newer Canon (DSLR) body to the EOS 3 you need to remember that unless you don't mind wasting film.<br /> <br /> Enjoy your "new" camera!<br /> <br /> Now…about some Camera Porn!<br /> <br /> Cheers! Jay</p><div></div>

<p>Yup, the two best features ever included in Canon cameras. ECF and DEP mode. The more you calibrate the ECF, the better it will perform. Try a calibration in very dim light, a calibration in very bright light (like maybe up at the sky but not into the sun), etc. The ECF builds a "profile", and every calibration builds upon it and fine tunes it. It always worked flawlessly for me, and is a feature I've missed in every digital SLR I've owned. I also really wish Canon would re-introduce DEP in their full frame cameras which I consider to be landscape cameras. (I consider the crop cameras to be wildlife cameras.) I'd trade video for ECF without hesitation.</p>

<p>I still have an EOS 3 and an EOS 5. Both have ECF and it works great for me. <br>

I wish that my EOS 30D had the ECF.<br>

Use the 30D most of the time. Have no use for video.</p>

<p>Just to be a contrarian I only have the PB-E2 mounted on one of my EOS1Vs (It came this way). The other 1V and the EOS 3 both are just body only. I actually prefer them this way as they are smaller and lighter. I rarely miss the extra controls of the PB-E2 or the additional winder speed. I have used third party rechargeable 2CR5 batteries in the 3 and 1V with no ill effects.</p>

<p>Bruce Miur wrote:</p>

<blockquote>It sounds like you are saying you cant control depth of field without a DEP mode...</blockquote>

<p>Well, you can, after a fashion. Obviously, you can focus on something and adjust the aperture to change the DoF. And for some types of photography, this is just fine. For other types, such as landscape or architectural, it's often desirable to have the DoF extend between a near and far distance (with the latter often at infinity) at the minimum possible f-number.</p>

<p>With current models, you can certainly play around focusing at various distances and looking at the DoF scales (to the extent that they can be read) until the DoF extends between the desired distances, but this certainly seems a clunky procedure compared with DEP mode.</p>

<p>The K1000 obviously didn't have DEP mode. But with most manual-focus primes, setting the DoF as above was easily done using the lens DoF scales. The technique was sometimes known as “zone focusing,” used often as a means of “pre-setting” focus and f-number when there wasn't time to do so when the picture was actually taken. The settings were often made just by glancing at the DoF scales, but the distances could also be determined visually by focusing on the near and far points. The great advantage of this technique is that the process is deterministic; if the desired near and far limits are known, the focus and f-number directly follow.</p>

<p>With most AF lenses, the DoF scales are so small as to be almost useless; moreover, AF lenses need to be focused manually to set the focus deterministically for given DoF limits. The DEP mode works much like visually finding the near and far distances with a manual-focus lens DoF scale, except that it's much faster and easier. Results seem about the same as those obtained from MF lens DoF scales. Despite the alleged 7/17 split of the DoF (which never really was completely explained), some fairly extensive testing seemed to indicate that DEP mode actually split the image distances equally, just as one would want. So DEP mode worked better than Canon led us to believe.</p>

<p>DEP mode hasn't been included in any of the EOS digital bodies since the original EOS-1Ds. Some of the other digital bodies include ADEP mode, which is similar to DEP except the camera chooses the near and far points. This is probably fine for shots such as group portraits where everyone is within the AF-point area, but not so good for landscapes because the desired near and far points are often outside the AF-point area. And in any event, photographer has no control over the points chosen.</p>

<p>My initial statement was probably unnecessarily dismissive. Properly, the current models do not provide a means of deterministically setting the focus and f-number so that the DoF extends between desired near and far limits at the minimum possible f-number. But if one does this on a substantial portion of his shots, both statements work to about the same end.</p>

<p>Allegedly, DEP mode was dropped because the firmware required too much memory. I dunno ... In my (and probably Canon's) experience, only a small percentage of people used or even understood DEP mode. And many photographers today have probably never even used a manual-focus lens, let alone done “zone focusing” using the lens DoF scales. So Canon may have simply eliminated a feature that they thought no one used.</p>

<p>Perhaps Canon also think no one uses “zone focusing” even on MF lenses. The new 17 mm and 24 mm TS lenses have great optical performance, but the DoF scales are very small and hard to read, very much in contrast to the very good DoF scale on the old TS-E 24. I hope the new 45 mm and 90 mm TS lenses (if they're ever introduced) include more usable scales.</p>

<p>I mainly have Nikon now, but I had one of those. Great camera, and yes! Eye control works. Why did they drop it?</p>

<p>Charles, the remote socket covers are still available from Canon. They cost about 69 cents each, but there is a $6 minimum shipping fee. I just bought and received 10 of them. PC covers are also available. Just call Canon's 800 number to order.</p>

 

<p>Charles, the remote socket covers are still available from Canon. They cost about 69 cents each, but there is a $6 minimum shipping fee. I just bought and received 10 of them. PC covers are also available. Just call Canon's 800 number to order.</p>

 

<p>I've just spent a year using a pair of 3's to cover kickboxing for a documentary project. The 3's were chosen for two reasons only:<br>

Full-frame (obviously)<br>

E C F !<br>

Yep, it's heavy, unbelievably loud, and you'll get asked if you're from the paper and wow that digital must be great... : ) It's simply the fastest-responding camera around to deal with rapidly changing compositions in the viewfinder and chaotic situations. Unlike a lot of people I've talked to, I've never had any trouble with the ECF and am puzzled as to why Canon have never included it on their digital bodies.<br>

No, I tell a lie, the third reason was compatibility with Canon's f2.8 zooms, which were pretty much essential on fight nights.<br>

If Canon are listening, the day a full-frame digital version of the 3 gets in the shops, I'm there at opening time.</p>

<p>You might find quite a line ahead of you ...</p>

<p>Hi Charles, I am another EOS 3 active user... It's a wonderful "full frame" camera and you can achieve wonderful "digital" shots, plenty of Mpx, if you own a Nikon 5000 ED scanner, as well! ;-)<br>

All the shots in my portfolio (<a href="../photos/dallalb">http://www.photo.net/photos/dallalb</a>) were taken with this camera and the color rendition is given by the film's unique characteristics.... Every film is like a new "sensor".<br>

This camera is plenty of useful and advanced features: it's a nice piece of equipment!<br>

Regards, Alberto.</p>

<p>I recently sold my EOS-3, opting to keep only a EOS1V as a film camera. Loved the 3's, though. kept the 1V as it outshines the 3 for speed by a couple of frames and is more durable. With the Pb-E2 and the Nc-E2 rechargeable battery however, the 3 almost keeps up with the 1V. Those batteries are probably hard to find, now. The ECF didn't work well for me with glasses. Never bothered with the DEP mode.</p>

<p>My most beloved 35mm camera I still miss it to this day. I will own another unit. If you think the shutter is loud try a MF Pentax 6x7...lol</p>

<p>I've also used an EOS 3 and thought it was a superb camera. I opted for the 1v as did Fred because I happen to think it is the best camera Canon has made to date and I firmly believe that it could survive just about anything and still get the shot. The '3' is 98% of the 1v and certainly can handle any situation presented to it. Congrats Charles on your wonderful camera!</p>